On Monday, 26 August 2008, a Palestinian child was wounded in the
southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah by an aimless gunshot while gunmen
were training in a nearby place. This incident is part of the state
of security chaos prevailing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately
18:00 on Monday, 26 August 2008, 7-year-old Shadi Sa’id ‘Aashour,
from Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of Rafah, was moderately
wounded by an aimless gunshot that entered the buttock and settled
in the pelvis, when he was playing near his family’s house.
According to the child’s father, sounds of shooting were heard in a
training site of Palestinian armed groups near the house.
The spokesman of the police, Islam Shahwan, stated to PCHR that the
police initiated investigations into most of such incidents and
presented recommendations to the Ministry of Interior considering
them occasional and unintentional. The Ministry of Interior
established a committee to communicate with Palestinian factions to
avoid the occurrence of such incidents, Shahwan added.
It is worth noting that 4-year-old Salah ‘Alaa’ al-Din al-Mudallal
was wounded in similar circumstances in the same area on Friday, 22
August 2008, and on Thursday, 21 August 2008, Ahmed Mousa al-Qedra,
37, from Khan Yunis, was killed in a similar incident.
PCHR is gravely concerned over such attacks that have caused
casualties among Palestinian civilians, and which are part of the
state of security chaos and misuse of weapons prevailing in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR calls upon authorized bodies to
investigate this latest attack and bring the perpetrators to
justice. PCHR further calls upon Palestinian armed groups to conduct
their military training away from civilian populated areas to avoid
civilian casualties.
